WAS z/OS V8.5 Wildfire Workshop Material

Document Author:

Don Bagwell

Document ID:

PRS4848

Doc. Organization:

Advanced Technical Sales

Document Revised:

11/18/2013

Product(s) covered:

WebSphere Application Server for z/OS

Abstract:WebSphere Application Server for z/OS Version 8.5 was made available in June of 2012. In many ways it is similar to V8, but in other ways new function has been added -- most notably, the new "Liberty Profile" server model, and the inclusion of the Compute Grid function and the Virtual Enterprise function.

The PDF files below represent the handouts used for the new WAS z/OS Version 8.5 Wildfire Workshop developed and delivered by the IBM Advanced Technical Skills organization from Gaithersburg, MD. The new V8 workshop carries the course code "WBSR85".

Wildfire Workshops are no-fee technical hands-on workshops intended to make IBM customers and Business Partners more aware and familiar with IBM technical offerings. The following URL provides information on other Wildfire offerings and information on enrolling in a given workshop session:

Note: the PDFs provided below come in two forms -- one has the presentation charts in "one-up" format. The companion PDF provides the same charts but in portrait mode with full speaker notes below each chart.

The objective of this unit is to provide a baseline understanding of WebSphere Application Server for z/OS.

The administrative model for WAS z/OS is in many ways common with WAS on distributed platforms. There are some differences, but they manifest at points where WAS interacts more closely with the platform operating system. In this unit we cover the way in which the configuration file systems are maintained on z/OS; we offer a brief introduction to the WSADMIN scripting interface; and we offer a review of the new "High Performance Extensible Logging" (HPEL) feature and a means of pushing log output to the UNIX file system with better management.

WebSphere Application Server for z/OS has two essential server model -- the multi-JVM server model with the controller and the servant regions; and the new "Liberty Profile" server model introduced with WAS V8.5. In this unit we will provide a review of both with a particular focus on how the offering for z/OS takes specific advantage of the z/OS platform. In addition, we look at the "Granular RAS" feature of WAS z/OS which allows WAS behavior to be isolated to the request level rather than just the server level.

Applications depend on data, and data serving is a key value attribute of the z/OS operating system platform. In this unit we explore how to access three types of data from a WAS z/OS application server -- relational data (JDBC, such as DB2), non-relational data (JCA, such as CICS), and messaging resources (JMS, such as MQ). Further, we highlight a feature of that provides for data resource failover and failback, which serves to enhance availability.

WAS z/OS Version 8.5 continues to use the IBM Installation Manager (IM) to create and manage the product file system (the hlq.SBBOHFS dataset that holds the product files). This unit provides an overview of IM and how to use it in a well-managed z/OS environment.

WebSphere Application Server for z/OS provides an exclusive cross-memory data exchange mechanism called "Optimized Local Adapters" (WOLA). It is a technology that exploits the ability of the z/OS operating system for one address space to reference and copy data from another address space's virtual memory without having to invoke networking protocols. It provides a very efficient and very low-latency mechanism for exchanging data between WAS z/OS application and external address spaces such as CICS, IMS, Batch Programs, USS processes and ALCS.

Units 2 through 4 and Unit 6 have associated hands-on labs that serve to illustrate and reinforce the concepts delivered during presentation. The following is the lab instructions guide for the labs in this workshop: